Setup guide

How to setup NiceVentriloStatus

This is a slim and simple guide on how to set up Apache2, PHP5 and eventually NiceVentriloStatus on your own computer.

Last update: 2006-06-20 (author: Christoffer).

Things that I assume

• Computer is running Windows XP
• You have experience in using a web browser
• You have experience in downloading files, unpack .zip-files and general experience in installing programs.
• You have experience in using a text-editor (e.g. Notepad)
• The Ventrilo server is version 2.3.1 (if you are running 2.1.2, please see the note under Step 5)

Step 1: Download and configure Apache2

Apache2 is a free web server software. You should get the latest version of the 2.0.x series of the Apache server, it can be found here. Note: Do NOT download the 2.2.2 (or later) version, since it's a little more tricky to get PHP to work with that version.

At the time of writing, 2.0.58 was the latest version, it was available at this URL.

When Apache2 is downloaded, just start to install it. During the install, you will be asked to enter "Network Domain", "Server Name" and "Administrator's Email Address". Enter "localhost" in the two first, and in the third you can enter any email address (e.g. "noemail@msn.com").

Apache2 should now be fully operational. Open a web browser and go to "http://localhost/". You should literally see a text "It works!".

Now, click on the Start menu, and on your Programs menu you should be able to find "Apache HTTP Server 2.0.58" (depending on what version you downloaded earlier). Select "Configure Apache Server -> Edit the Apache httpd.conf Configuration File", this will bring the Apache config up. Not too far from the top you will find a block with LoadModule code. In the end of that block, add these two lines (see Figure 1):

LoadModule php5_module c:/php5/php5apache2.dll
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .html

Still having the config file open, find a row starting with "DirectoryIndex". At the end of that line, add "index.php" (see Figure 2).

Important: Now, find a row that begins with "DocumentRoot". The path that is defined there will, by me, further be referred to as the web-folder. You will need to know this path later, when setting up PHP. You can now save the file and close it.

Step 2: Downloading and configuring PHP5

Download the latest version of PHP5, it can be found here (download Zip package, under Windows Binaries).

At the time of writing, 5.1.4 was the latest version, it was available at this URL.

Unzip this package to c:\php5. In this folder you will find a file named php.ini-recommended. Rename this file to php.ini and move it to C:\Windows (or wherever you have installed Windows). Open the file with Notepad (or a text-editor of your choice). Find the row that begins with "doc_root". This should be set to the same path as the www-folder mentioned earlier, only this time, you will use backslashes (\) instead of slashes (/). Below is what my config looks like:

doc_root = "C:\Program\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs"

You should now have Apache2 and PHP5 set up properly on your computer. Restart the Apache2 server (Start Menu -> Programs -> Apache2 -> Control Apache Server -> Restart). Hopefully, you will recieve no errors at this time :)

Step 3: Download and configure NiceVentriloStatus

The latest version can be found here. Unzip it to the www-folder mentioned earlier. Open index.php with Notepad or your text-editor of choice. The settings should look like this:

$pathToVentStatus = "ventrilo_status.exe";
$hostOrIP = "chrissy.fulkod.net";
$serverPort = 3784;

Step 4: Get ventrilo_status.exe

You can either:

1. Go to ventrilo.com and download a server package for windows. Install it and locate where ventrilo_status.exe is (can be found in the folder you installed the Ventrilo server), or
2. download ventrilo_status.exe right here (extracted from the 2.3.1 server version package)

Copy ventrilo_status.exe into the NiceVentriloStatus folder, the same folder in which index.php is. Check out the screenshot in Figure 3.

Step 5: Success!

You should now have a fully operational version of NiceVentriloStatus running on your computer. Open http://localhost/NiceVentriloStatusBundle/ in a webbrowser (the address might vary a bit, depending on where you unzipped NiceVentriloStatus).

Note: If you get "No response from server", that might be because my Ventrilo server (chrissy.fulkod.net) is down. Adjust the settings in index.php to connect to a Ventrilo server that you know is working.

Note: If you are running version 2.1.2 of the Ventrilo server, you might need to edit your .ini-configuration. You can look at the sample ini-file that I recieved from Team Medics here: ventrilo_srv.ini.

Help, feedback etc.

I would like you to send me an email if something is unclear or incorrect etc. Please include as much information as you can in the mail. Eventually I'll get a FAQ up here if needed.

For more in-depth information on NiceVentriloStatus, you should refer to the documentation.

You can find contact details at my homepage.